I’ve been holding down a once a month residency at The Kava Lounge in San Diego for almost three years. The night is called Tickle Torture and it’s a solid techno romp together with the Get Ugly DJs, Alex Villalobos and Dr. Indulgent.

The music is always current, fresh and vibrant. Grooved out techno that will take you through dawn in the Mission Hills watching the planes take off and land. Party people come from LA and Mexico to get on this party train. The Get Ugly DJs are superb music makers and I always look forward to dancing to their beats.  You can download a Dr. Indulgent DJ mix here.

And here’s a mix of some of those minimal grooves that I can be heard playing at Tickle Torture:

1. Layo & Bushwacka - Life to Live (Loco Dice Remix)
2. Worthy - Crack-el (Justin Martin’s Stoopit Crunk-ill Hyphy Mix)
3. Lucio Aquilina - Magic M (Original Mix)
4. Andrea Doria - Beauty of Silence (Inpetto Remix)
5. Sasha - Park It In The Shade (Original)
6. Kalle M - Unet (Original Mix)
7. Itamar Sagi - Cancun (Original Mix)
8. Justin Martin - Night Owl
9. Paulo Olarte - Solo Tu (Isolee Mix)
10. Stimming - Funkworm (Original Mix)
11. Brendon Moeller - Space

right-click download here

I always wanted to remake The Eagle’s Hotel California.

I’m tired of the original recording. In fact, I’m pretty tired of all the recordings made in the ’60s and ’70s. Yes, even the classic stuff. Especially the classic stuff. I think I’ve heard it all too often. I think most people are tired of it too. That’s probably why we all love cover versions so much. I prefer listening to Seu Jorge sing David Bowie than the Diamond Dog himself. I love Nouvelle Vague.

I often think that the USA is stuck in a time trap from that era. Culturally, the country had not advanced too far beyond that time. Baby boomers are quite happy with The Rock n Roll Hall of Fame playing in the background all the way to the grave. Scorcese, Lucas and Spielberg keep on regurgitating.  (I went to see the new Indiana Jones and loved it in the same way I loved the original when I was like nine.)

So, a long time ago, I began to re-write the lyrics to Hotel California. I tried to update the setting and the vibe. A little bit Miami (shades of dawn in the Fountainbleu jacuzzi circa ‘95 - Robbie, Scott, Wade, Steve, Huggy?), a little bit Ibiza (poolside in San Antonio circa ‘98) , with a stronger hallucinogenic twist.

I had a lot of collaborators along the way. David Denny laid down a brilliant guitar track, Briejock delivered the vocals, Gavin Duffy played some drums, Ben played bass and trumpet, and after seven years of tinkering, the song was finally released on my Hawke album Love Won Another.

right-click download here

I always wanted to remake Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love.

Last year, I sketched out a version and then worked with Skyler Mic to come up with a dynamite final mix. I called it “Whole Lotta Fluff,” and sent mp3s to a handful of DJs ranging from DJ Icey to Tim “Love” Lee. It was played at Glastonbury and beyond!!

Back in the studio, I started messing with the tracks and came up with this lighter version called “Fluff Groove” which isn’t as blatant a con job. You can download it below.

I played it at Tickle Torture, my monthly gig in San Diego, and everyone seemed to like it. Now it yours!! So take it and break it!!

I’m a big fan of the mash-up/bootleg/re-edit culture. I think that stealing from the past and re-inventing is a powerful artform. Extending the life of the original into new forms, tangents and interpretations is what many of my favorite artists like to do.

My Surrealist friends were doing it 100 years ago with their paper collages. Current artists like Richard Prince, with his paintings of covers of pulp novel, and Dan Colen, with his Geppetto stills from Disney’s Pinocchio, are at it. We’re all re-inventing the past and re-writing the future.

Here are some links to some of my favorite music artists who are at it.

1. Kleptones
2. Flagrant Fowl
3. G.A.M.M.
4. Mei Lwun
5. crftp

right-click download here

This past Saturday, I DJed a free outdoor party in LA that was put together by Tim at Fresh to raise funds for the local community. 800 kids showed up and I rocked it along with fellow jet set veterans Barry Weaver and Jason Blakemore.

Jason recorded a dope video while I was DJing. Check it out below.

What an awesome event!!

Here’s the DJ set:

Track List
Tricky Disco - Tricky Disco (Lutzenkirchen Remix) (iO Music)
Binary Star - Left Eye (white label)
Makossa Megablast - A Late Que Eu To Passando (Man Recordings)
She’s Not In (white label)
Lyrics Born - Let The Lyrics Roll In (Bombs)
Gusto’s Grooves (white Label)
Wink - Higher State (white label)
Mylo - Doctor Pressure (Breastfed)
Snoop’s Acid Drop (white label)
Tracey Thorn - Raise The Roof (Cagedbaby Remix) (Virgin)
Booka Shade vs Plastic Operator - Night Falls/Won’t Back Down

right-click download here

Poi Dog Pondering are an amazing band with roots in Hawaii, Austin and Chicago. Their music shape-shifts around genres and they’re not afraid to jump between rock, soul, house and traditional Polynesian sounds.

I was stoked when Frank Orrall asked me to choose a track from the album “In Seed Comes Fruit” to remix. Unfortunately, this remix was never released. But recently, I started tinkering with the mix and came up with this new version.

Poi Dog have a new album out called “7″ and they’re currently on a national tour supporting it.

right-click download here

I made this mix a couple of years ago and just dug it up on the request of a friend having a pool party. Yes …. summer is in sight and I’ll be spending a lot more time under water again. Definitely one of my favorite places to be. I can hold my breath for 17 minutes. I really like those swimming pools with underwater speakers.

Wish I could list the tracks but I have no idea what any of them are or where to find them in my collection. Maybe they drowned!! Nonetheless, this is a blurry affair. Must have been too much chlorine in the pool because everything looks really foggy. I remember lots of one legged jumping to unclog my ears. And someone’s grand dad who had snorkels and flippers and spent hours underwater checking out the girls. There was also a penguin. I think he was wearing roller skates.

Next time I’ll remember to bring goggles and ear plugs.

right-click download here

Que queeeeee? Just back from a quick trip to Mexico with the family and conquistador Fernando Apodaca, Sami Yaffa of The New York Dolls and Carmen Guy of Mad Juana.

Life is perfect when one day feels like a week. Maybe it was the delicate Venus/ Neptune link or maybe we were all born under a lucky star.

Another gem taken off my first album Namaquadisco, this is a slow-builder that erupts into a burst of swirly instrumental lava after about 5 minutes.

I was hoping to re-edit this for this posting but couldn’t complete a version that I liked. So let me throw it out there for you to re-edit it and send me the mix to post.

Feel free to mash up, contort or inject anything into the mix. I dare anyone to mash this with The New York Dolls!!

right-click download here

My sister and I arrive at a slick restaurant in the valley where we’re meeting friends and family to celebrate her birthday. I notice a girl at the bar wearing dark glasses. I’m at the bar waiting to get the bartender’s attention, and the girl turns to me and says “Will you give me a kiss?”

“Sure.” I lean in and give her a kiss on the cheek. I order my drink.

She asks “Are you in the music industry?”

“Yes”

“Have you worked with anyone famous.”

“Yeah. Elton John. I …..” She cuts me off and offers “I’m a singer and ….”

Her words trail off as my drink arrives and I turn to leave.

She leans over one more time and asks, “Do you like vibrators?”

“No. Do you?”

Then she says “Yes. I’ve got one up my ass right now, do you want to feel it?”

“OK.” And she slides my hand down the back of her jeans and there, in her crotch, I feel it. Sure enough, she has a lipstick size vibrator thats attached by wire to a remote control.

right-click download here

Taken off my first album Namaquadisco, Fung has always been one of my favorites. A weird coincidence of sounds that worked together in a bizarre way with an intro sample from one of my favorite movie of all time, Beyond The Valley of the Dolls, and a memorable Juno 106 progression.

Namaquadisco was released in the US on Sunburn Recordings and in Europe on Distance Records. Fung was one of the tracks on the 12″ titled Erections from Namaquadisco.

Recorded in the Hardkiss room at Hyde Street Studio in the Tenderloin neighborhood San Francisco in 1996, it was described by Entertainment Weekly as “a DJ bricolage …. that advances a trippy and joyous strain of American dance-floor imagineering that should give the Europeans pause.” I think that means they liked it.

right-click download here

In 2001, we toured the UK, knocking up 17 gigs in as many days criss-crossing England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. This was the infamous Sticky Trumpet Tour distilled here in this fifteen minute video.

The Baroness, The Rebel Crew, Niven, Paul Riley and myself joined forces with the likes of The Freeloaders, The International People’s Gang, Matthew Jay and DJ Hal as we squirted suntan oil over the deprived bodies of the British royalty.

There are many stories to be told about this invasion. Some of my favorite moments were:

1) DJing live on BBC1’s Breezeblock with Annie Nightingale
2) Late night sessions at Adam Freeland’s pad in Brighton.
3) Delirious recording sessions at Square dance Studios Nottingham.
4) After an all-nighter in Manchester, traveling to Amsterdam to watch European Championship soccer.
5) What the hell where we doing DJing at a pub in Worchester?
6) All out brawl while DJing at Fidel’s Cigar Bar at The Lamp in Hull with Porky.
7) Heaps of free gear from our sponsor Kappa.
Heaps of gear from our other sponsor Chalky.
9) Magic time spent with Matthew Jay.
10) All of the 24 hour party people.

Video design and direction by Paul Riley